JA Konrath Weighs in on marketing, success and the unknown

In every writer’s life there are always those people that you look up to for advice. Sometimes it’s great advice and sometimes you’d rather ignore that you ever heard it to begin with. One of the authors I have followed through the length of my short career is Ja Konrath (Joe Konrath). I devoured his blog (A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing) when I was first starting out.

JA Konrath is brutal and I mean that literally. He doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t sugar coat anything and he certainly doesn’t offer to hold your hand when you cry over something he says.

He says it how he sees it. Because of this some people don’t feel warm fuzzies toward him but the fact is he has a lot of useful information.

I found a post that he wrote to be very interesting and I wanted to share it with you. It is titled “No One Knows” and deals with the uncertainties of publishing. Again, dont expect this article to make you feel better. It won’t. But it is an honest look at how little control we authors truly have in the publishing world.

Granted we have far more than we used to now with being indie authors but no one can force anyone to buy your book. And sometimes…you just have to get real and question why your books aren’t selling. Could you need to market a bit differently? Are your covers top notch quality? Are there formatting or editing errors in your book? Are you just not spending the time to expand your writer’s platform?

JA Konrath supports the theory that despite doing all of the “right” things it still takes a great deal of luck to become a success. You can market until you are blue in the face and it just might not be your time yet. Check out what he has to say and let me know your thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with him and why?